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Points to Know - Central Powers

Fri Aug 25, 2017 12:38 am

Points to Know - Central Powers

EAW is a massive and daunting game. In order to learn it, I scoured though the threads to find information for a crib sheet. Previously, in a thread called “Points to Know – CSA”, I did the same thing for Civil War 2.

Please look over the following material. Challenge anything or add anything; I will fold the results in. Discussion is good; let's turn this document into a powerful learning tool.

Forum comments, corrections and input will be in an orange font.

Strategy
Pick a front and focus your strength; if you try to defend everywhere equally, you will lose.
Know the points of attack and know where the enemy is coming from.
Defend objectives and anything the enemy values.
There are no penalties for not taking starting objectives by the given schedule in a war plan. These are bonus objectives, which if you take in time, will provide points.
Control the rail lines; railways are the key to the WW1 battles.
If you go west, push every man and gun you can scrape up into Belgium and France.
If you defend in the West, dig in and hold on the French border.
Under the game rules, it is extraordinarily difficult to win an offensive battle against an equal or larger sized force.
Defending with a good force on good terrain is the best way to bleed an enemy.
When dug in and defending, 1 to 1 ratios are not necessary, but try to maintain 1-2 or better odds. Don't forget to factor in terrain and river crossings. In hills, across a river, 1 to 3 odds might be enough to hold.
Form a continuous line of well entrenched stacks in the west; use small units to entrench 2nd row fall back positions.
On the Scores & Objectives page, under cbt. power, the first number is actual combat power in relation to you; the second number is a naval power comparison.
German colonies bring VP to the CP. So, the longer they hold, the better it is for the Centrals.

Target
Objective cities and strategic cities.
Cities with stars create VPs.
Destroy elements in battle to win NM.
Due to opportunities for destroying units though encirclement and sieges, the Eastern Front offers an ample source of both gaining and inflicting losses in NM..
Revolutions may happen when rebel loyalty reaches 70% in Russia and 80% for all others; once in revolt, each turn there is a chance the nation will move 1% more towards rebel alignment.
Once Rebel Alignment exceeds 80% in a nation, there is a 1% chance per point over 80 of the nation’s will crumb and withdraw from the war.

Movement
Try playing with Traffic Penalties; if you play with traffic on, doomstacks tend to melt away.
Use strategic movement to transfer leaders, planes, and mobile/immobile supply wagons and munitions.
The speed of movement is based on cohesion.
Pay attention to weather; moving in bad weather destroys cohesion.
Avoid movement in the mountains during winter.
Snow can block travel in mountains, both foot and rail.
Mud, often in the spring and fall, wrecks movement. Plan accordingly for deployment or retreat.
Red areas mean you may not move into that area as you do not have sufficient power or MC to enter the region.
The only thing that can stop a stack from moving into another region is ZOC, and if their Patrol value is high enough, an enemy stack can block you without going into combat. The Patrol value of the defender compared to the evasion value of the moving stacks is factored through a formula.
Each element has a Patrol Value that represents the ability of the element to block or interrupt enemy movement. To calculate, the Patrol Value belonging to friendly elements are added to the Patrol value of friendly fortifications in a region. This value is not modified by the Military Control value in the region. The resulting value represents the strength of the Zone of Control that friendly forces exert in the region.
Infantry has around 9-10 evasion and artillery has '1'; the lowest value of the lowest 'unit' counts, unit, not element, and units are averaged.
For Zone of Control, only the total police value is important. Mounted elements simply have a higher police value than foot units, so you can get a fairly high police value with relatively few elements.
When moving into an area that contains an enemy stack, if your MC is below 5%, your units will shift to attack.
Count the distance in days to plan and control your moves.
During a turn, if you inadvertently cancel a move, you can still re-plot the same move without time previously spent moving being negated. Thus the time spent moving in the previous turn is not lost, if that stack's move is canceled before it arrives in its target region and the turn’s end is executed. This fact allows a number of fast move tricks.
- Once you start a move from one region to another that takes more than a turn to travel, you can create a situation where your force has an unseen head start. This may catch your foe off guard by allowing your troops to appear to have traveled more distance in a turn then is possible.
Movement can be tough in winter or mud. A moving force will arrive in an exhausted state. However, in clear weather the same route may only take 17 days. If you have a supply source and can afford to wait, it is often best to hang around until the weather clears before moving. In such a case, on turn 1, order the stack to make the 17+ day move. During that turn, it gets 15 days closer to its goal. On turn 2, cancel the move, but don't do anything else. This means don't move in or out of a structure and don't add or remove anything from the stack. On 3rd turn, if the weather is good, order the move again. This move will only take two days and will lose very little cohesion, thus allowing your force to arrive in fighting trim.
A CP penalty of 5% may cause no movement effect and little if any combat effect. However, a large CP penalty may slow a stack to a crawl and cause them to suffer firing last in combat.
The movement penalty at -10% CP seems negligible and it doesn’t apply a negative to combat until units fall to 40% of maximum cohesion. A well-rested force that spends a few extra days marching in clear weather will not have their combat performance hampered much.
Inactive units or Forces suffer a 35% reduction in their movement speed.
To join two moving forces together, drop the faster force on the slower.
Moving land or naval stacks can try to intercept a passing targeted enemy unit.
Don’t target a unit unless combining or intercepting; instead, target the area to avoid canceled moves or having your force follow the target into areas you do not want to be in.
Move troops in Green/Green to limit travel attrition.
Separate units traveling to the same area on Green/Green can form up and assault next turn.
Always stack leaders with a unit when ending a move in a territory containing an enemy force.
Supply units, pontoons, engineers and HQ's etc. move at the same speed as marching infantry.
Supply wagons move slower than cavalry.
Heavy artillery slows movement; try to transport heavy artillery by rail.
If you control the railroads in a theater, and the lines you need are not cut, you can easily outmaneuver your foe.
Control+W will cycle through locked units, including under construction units. Control+E will cycle through non-locked units even if they are already on the move. Between those two functions you should able to cycle through the entirety of your land forces.

Military Control
Use units to raise MC to >75% and deny rail use and supply to the other side.
Supply movement is blocked by <25% MC.
Fan out units in surrounding areas to grab MC in areas of interest or possible supply routes.
Watch MC, if below 5%, units will shift to Orange and will attack.
If you have 91% MC in an area, you will force the enemy into a river-crossing under fire; If you have MC 10% or higher in an area, then you are considered to have a bridgehead/beachhead and can enter the region and fight without a crossing river penalty.
Garrison objective and strategic cities to gain VP.
To collect VPs you must control the location, and to control a location with <50% loyalty, garrison with militia inside the city or line infantry out or inside.
If both sides have troops in a region, neither may increase military control until one side assumes an Offensive Posture.

Units
Order is: army group, army, corps, division, brigade, battery, and element.
Starting in 1/1915, when tech becomes available, elements are automatically upgraded into more effective types.
Passing the mouse over the PWR number box on a Unit counter shows the manpower.
Marines are useful where rivers are present
Mountain troops are excellent in the Balkans, Italy and Alsace-Lorraine areas.
Militia does not hold up against regular troops.
Cavalry is useful in early 1914 until Trench Warfare Starts; they can cover a lot of ground and capture Northern Belgium or even Northern France on their own if you are willing to take a risk of losing them.
Once, trenches kick in, cavalry are useless in the West and better to "deploy by rail" to the Eastern or Southern Front.
Supply wagons give bonuses and cost no CP.
Each green or blue dot below a structure represents the presence of 3 units.
Ctrl + F4 will remove all but the selected stack from the map; this will allow you to target an area for movement without tagging another unit or to see structures buried under units.

Leaders
The highest ranking leader, be it 1 star, 2 stars, or 3 stars, provides 24 CP to his stack, except for von Lettow-Vorbeck in Africa who provides 12.
A leader in command of an army provides a base of 48 CP.
If not attached to a GHQ, a leaders command points are halved.
If a stack commanding officer fails his activation test, units reduce movement by 50%.
Enabling corps command increases the combat power and general’s attributes are passed on.
The only GHQ you can appoint is Germany's second GHQ; any 3 star not currently combined with a unit can be used; if you pick a general with low seniority, you may end paying a NM penalty.
The Command Radius of an Army is displayed by selecting the Army Command stack and pressing and holding the <Shift> key.
Leaderless troops are always activated, but suffer from movement and combat penalties.
Inactive leaders lose the ability to perform some special orders.
Use your best leaders on the offensive. You can always dig-in your mediocre commanders in a defensive position, where their being inactivated doesn't matter. But you need leaders who are active most of the time to move aggressively, or to react to an unsuspected move by the enemy.
If your promotable officer is not the leader of his stack, extract him from the stack or the promote order will not work.
The ability to increase a general's skills does exist. If they fight and win long enough, Defensive and Offensive will increase with experience.
Only the commanding general traits are considered, not the subordinates (unless specified as being usable as a subordinate.)
Skill attributes in the same field are never cumulative.
The same trait, from the same type of unit, does not stack; if it has a different trait name, then typically they do stack.
There are no officers with the training trait.
Use the almost useless 2-1-1 generals in forts or to form 3rd class corps.
Consider using leaders, like Max von Gallwitz or August von Mackensen, with the multinational trait to make your allied forces more effective.
When one unlocks generals, the newly appointed commanders are random; rerunning a turn will not change the results.

Corps & Armies
A lone Army Group Stack will never initiate combat by itself.
Interlock corps and armies by keeping them in the same or adjacent areas.
Corps are independent and not attached to armies.
Armies are attached to specific Army Groups/GHQs to keep from suffering the Out of Command Chain penalty and to receive their GHQ commander’s bonuses.
To show command radius, press and hold the Shift key while an Army Group is selected.
A corps cannot include more than 9 elements.
2 infantry divisions and 1 to 2 artillery units makes a good formation.
Field artillery is usually present at the Corps level to provide direct fire support.
Medium and heavy artillery can be either consolidated into a Corps, or kept separate at the Army level.
Consider creating a 100% arty corps; if you are not too much on the losing side, they hardly take a hit in combat.
A single cavalry regiment per Stack is sufficient for most purposes.
Infantry, cavalry and artillery with the Army HQ can prove a useful reserve to support adjacent Corps.
Captured Units are usually remnants of artillery formations. These Units can be useful support in fortified positions or combine with militia and 3rd rate line units.
Fill armies with loose divisions; use leaders for corps in the same or adjacent areas.
It is possible to attach more than 8 armies to a GHQ, even though the face card won't display more than 8.
Balloons add 1 command point and helps in spotting and coordinating movement.



Air & Scouting
"Know your foe," cavalry, balloons and recon planes are your eyes and ears.
Use the fog of war to your advantage as best as you can.
Your foe will most likely concentrate their best leaders in areas they think are important or have imminent plans for.
While it is not a substitute for scouting, the force power comparison in the ledger can be a fairly useful tool. As the war progresses it becomes more difficult to use, but it can provide a decent estimation.
Zeppelins, if you are close enough to London, can use one of the RGDs to bomb the city and cause NM loss; they also can conduct a long range, naval reconnaissance through RGDs.
Station Zeppelins in Belgium ASAP and start bombing London. Until the English reach level 2 aviation tech and have fighters stationed in or adjacent to London, they will not have access to RDC combat air patrol cards and will be defenseless against raids. Thus, there's a narrow window where it's possible to cheaply inflict substantial NM losses.
Giving an air unit a passive posture will keep your aircraft on the ground.
In case of bad weather, your planes, at best, can make one offensive mission
You can move your air units by: train, strategic movement, normal movement.
Although a structure is not necessary for air operations, air squadrons will recover cohesion and replacements faster if on a depot.
Move up aircraft up to just behind the front lines.
Have interlocking fighter coverage.
Use cavalry and armor cars to scout in the East, Balkans and Turkey.
When a recon squadron is attached an army or corps stack, and you achieve a large recon success, in battle your artillery are 5% more accurate. But, the down side is your planes almost always fly and if there are enemy fighters in the region, you may lose planes.
Aircraft will not fly in in mountains or in regions experiencing a snow storm.
Mass fighters in an interlocking networks with no more than 3 intervening areas.
Fighter interception is capped at 15 squadrons.
Create a fighter screen over your main points of defense or attack.

Trenches and Forts
Use militia to build fall back positions in areas just behind your main lines.
Trench levels 5-8 can only be achieved if artillery is present; for secondary lines consider using light artillery.
At the start of each turn, all stacks automatically acquire the highest trench level present in the area.
A fort without a relieving force will fall to a siege; there is no substitute for a field army.
A cover force entrenched outside a key area will prevent an immediate siege.
Overcrowding penalizes forces too numerous to defend structures.
Terrain and fort/city bonuses do not add up. Either you are outside in the terrain, or you are in the fort.
A siege battle is initiated when the following conditions are met: there are at least two opposing stacks in a region; an “assault” command posture has been assigned; the number of breaches equal or surpass the fortification level.
A force in assault posture will try to storm the structure instead of besieging it. The procedure is the same as in regular combat except that the defender benefits from a combat bonus. Permanent forts provide a great bonus. Frontage is quite limited in such combat.
Forts need artillery inside them to block river supply or bombard ships.
If you create a new unit and place it outside the city, after the turn is executed, the new unit, and any troops stacked with them, will always go into the city. This results in the loss of outside entrenchments. Make sure you wait a turn before putting new units into fortified lines outside of cities. After the first turn, new units will continue training outside.
Possible addition to a siege stack are: Pioneer brigade - provides 1 point siege bonus; Engineer brigade - provides 1 point siege bonus; Engineer trait - provides 1 point siege bonus, (Brun von Mudra and Johannes von Eben); Heavy artillery - provides 1 point siege bonus; Super heavy/railroad guns - provides 1 point siege bonus; Howitzer regiment (Austrian) - provides 1 point siege bonus; Bombard fort card - use of the RDC requires 4 elements of munitions, 2 super heavy elements and 50% MC. Its effects are 1 breach, fortress guns suffer -95% cohesion & -75% strength.
Remember when building a siege stack that the siege benefit applies once from pioneers or engineers. Ditto for different types or multiples of the same artillery. This is because the same trait does not stack. If it's a different trait (different trait name) then typically they do stack.

Artillery
Heavy Artillery is really good against troops in Forts or Trenches.
Medium Artillery is good in mobile combat.
Railroad guns are available from the beginning of game, in very small quantities.
Artillery is a support units, so in a battle, artillery elements are put in second line and take very few hits as long as there is still infantry to cover them.
Place your frontline troops in a corps or loose in an army, but artillery can be anywhere.
Putting artillery in a corps won't affect its range or ROF, but it will cause the artillery to target the same unit the infantry is targeting; if the artillery isn't in a corps, it will arbitrarily pick a target, though bigger units are more likely to be picked.
Due to short ranges, artillery does poorly in the mountains.
Keep your big guns supplied with ammo.
Ammo consumption is a lot higher than it displays in battle reports.
Each mobile ammo stack has some 80 supply capacity; in the beginning most cities will not have more than 30-40.
The best way to ensure munitions are where they need to be is using Munitions Trains units. When these get low on munition stockpiles, you can rail them back to depots in your home nation to refill if need be.
Level 3 artillery tech unlocks stronger heavy artillery.
All types of chemical attacks are more efficient in the first 3 uses. This is not per faction, but rather universal; the enemy uses count along with yours.

Combat
Attacking successfully is very difficult; good leadership and odds in your favor are critical factors.
When NM is low, it is difficult to successfully attack.
Defenders are hard to move unless massively outnumbered or poorly lead.
Punch hard or don’t punch at all.
Don’t attack across rivers if at all possible.
Try to ensure preponderance of artillery when attacking, especially medium and heavies.
Try to have at minimum 1.5 to 1 numerical superiority when attacking.
Have reserves to support an attack. If you do not reserves, don’t go on the offense.
A field battle is initiated when the following conditions are met: there are at least two opposing stacks in the same region; an “offensive/assault” command posture been assigned to at least one of the stacks; the player with the “offensive/assault” stack must have detected the enemy stack; an army-stack cannot initiate a battle if there are other friendly stacks in the area, including unescorted supply units or a solitary captured artillery.
The stack commitment rules for battles can produce unpredictable results; it is possible that a very small stack may target a large one, or the reverse. It is best to circumvent these situations by having as few stacks as possible in an area.
Frontage determines how many elements fight. Before attacking, check the terrain overlay in the combat area to determine the number of elements usable during any round. This is key to smaller armies defeating more numerous opponents.
To check, click on a leader's stack and press the "7" key for a terrain overlay. Cursor a region; a menu will pop up with the number of Line (infantry & cavalry) and Support elements (artillery) that will fight under that leader in that region. Extra elements count as a reserve replacing any that withdraw/rout.
In open terrain only, (clear/prairie/desert/wood) units quotas are modified by leader (rank)*(offensive/defensive rating) depending whether in offensive or defensive posture: This bonus can be HUGE.
Taylor force size to frontage; count the element costs and fill the entire frontage width.
Strong units take their place on line first.
Artillery units over the frontage limit will not help in battle; infantry reserves over the frontage limit do as they can plug holes that develop in combat.
Unless under a good commander, most areas can use only 12 elements of Artillery. With a “3” leader trait instead of a "4" it works out to be 16 elements of support units instead of 12.
Supply wagons will, at most, take up a single support element slot in battle.

Inactive units or forces suffer up to a 35% reduction in their combat efficiency if they engage in combat in hostile territory.
Victory in a battle is determined primarily by the losses suffered and losses inflicted; even if your force withdraws, if serious loss had been inflicted on an opposing force, it is possible to be considered the victor.
You can’t retreat from battle into a region where you have less than 5% military control.
Keep a reserve force behind each major front, on rails if possible, as a fire brigade.
Each round of combat have Fire sequences, then a Melee/assault sequence.
In End of all War, the battle is won or lost mostly with fire sequences.
Understand who can reach the battlefield and when.
When Marching to the Sound of the Guns, corps and army stacks in neighboring regions may join a battle.
Once you spread beyond adjacent areas, there's no way for MTSG to work.
There is no way to 'pin' a stack down. You cannot stop MTSG by starting two simultaneously battles in neighboring regions.
Take advantage of the MTSG and concentrate at the right place.
Maximize the chances of adjacent forces MTSG by putting them in an offensive posture with active rail movement.
An army moving at Conservative Attack, Blue/Orange, will attack at a slower pace; this may allow its neighboring corps to March to the Sound of the Guns and deliver a crushing blow.
The basic chance of Marching to the Sound of the Guns is 100% modified by:
-10% for each day of marching, all normal factors affecting the stack's movement apply.
+10% if adjacent to army HQ
+25% if the army HQ itself
+5% for each point of strategic rating of the leader
- Every 5% of military control in both the start and end region lacking -1% chance.
-10% if in defensive posture.
Troops that have marched to the sound of the guns will not benefit from entrenchments in the region they are coming from, nor will they benefit from any friendly entrenchment in the region where combat takes place.
Stacks that are at a passive posture will not march to the sound of the guns.
Troops marching to the sound of the guns will not be penalized if they cross a river to reach the region where combat takes place.
After combat, stacks that have marched to the sound of the guns return to where they marched from.

Tactics
In the West, it will come down to a continuous line of well entrenched stacks; use militia units to entrench and hold a 2nd row of fall back positions.
Keep an eye on the weather and its effects.
Hide behind rivers.
Attacking across a river is brutal on the attacker; it is simply not something you want to do if avoidable.
When you attack while crossing a major river or land off of ships, the first round of battle the defender fires at you while you do nothing but absorb the punishment. Once you've survived the first round of battle, you may fire back.
When crossing a minor river the attacker's frontage is about half of open terrain under good weather. The attacker also suffers a x 0.75 offensive fire modifier and the defender receives a x 1.2 modifier during the first round and so on.
If you have 91% MC in an area, you will force the enemy into a river-crossing under fire; if you have MC 10% or higher in an area, then you are considered to have a bridgehead/beachhead and can enter the region and fight without a crossing a river penalty.
Trying to estimate how much a weak enemy stack could recover before you engage them is really tough. Especially against a charismatic commander with HQ support. And then there is also the cohesion your force loses each day it marches. If you play with the traffic option it is even worse. Be cautious when launching attacks that will happen after the turn's day 8. Much can change by then; it is possible for weak stacks, given 10 days to recover cohesion, to more than double their power rating.
You can't always pick which units will defend, but you can choose which unit attacks.
Small independent stacks avoid CP penalty, but risk defeat in detail by a concentrated force.
Always have a mobile reserve with some punch behind your front to respond to the unexpected.
Grow and keep reserves to swap out with stacks in need of replenishing.
Keep reserve forces positioned on rails for quick moves.
If you do not defend important cities, you will quickly lose them and your reserves will not get them back very easily.
The value of being in a fort, city or redoubt is the defender frontage is as clear terrain and the attacker has 25% less.

Replacements
Many players turn off auto-replacements; it allows you to have more control of your army and makes you more aware of the resources being allotted.
The PWR number is an estimate of combat effectiveness based on hits, troop quality, and very importantly cohesion; your forces will fight poorly when below 60% of initial cohesion.
White ribbons on a unit symbolize empty element.
The three bars on the unit panels are not too accurate. The game only has an estimate place-holder images with 5 or 6 figures, something like: 0, 20, 40, 60, 80, and 100 percent. Expect a small margin of error when reading the bars.
In order for a unit that has suffered strength point losses to be eligible to receive replacements, it must start the turn stationary in an "eligible" structure. While the unit must START stationary, it may then move during the turn.
If an element is completely destroyed, the parent unit will need to draw a full replacement element from the Replacement Pool. For each unit, this is limited to a single replacement per turn.
A corps is a unit and only one element per turn per unit may be replaced. So, if more than 1 unit inside a corps has a missing element, temporarily break those units out of the corps.
Even if an element wouldn't have spent a chit while repairing itself, it still requires that there is at least one chit in the appropriate pool for any repairs to occur.
Comb through battered units and pull elements showing mainly red. Sending worn out units into battle is a good way to loose NM.
For maximum possible cohesion and replacement gains: pull battered troops out of the line, break any corps into individual units, and place them inside a city containing a depot and medical service.
Keep an eye on your forces cohesion; a unit with full stocks of ammo, supply and manpower is almost useless at low cohesion levels.
The replacement rate is: inside city (10%), with a fort (10%) and depot (20%).
Medical service adds 15% to Cohesion recovery to a stack.
Don’t bother buying militia replacements; a weak militia units digs a trench or holds a VP city just as well as a full strength unit.
Each time a hit is healed, there is a 10% chance of a chit being used. So, 1 chit = approximately 10 hits.
To replace a destroyed element entirely always take an entire chit, and can only be done at depots.
Don’t immobilize an entire naval stack; always take a ship that needs a replacement out of the fleet, in a port that has a naval base, and put it on g/g. Use the rest of the fleet as you wish.

Experience
In combat, experience "points" are gained when an element inflicts losses greater than it suffers. Leaders gain experience "points" in combat, when elements under their command inflict more losses than they suffer.
For each odd level of experience, ie 1, 3, 5, etc, units gain a +1 increase in their initiative, discipline, patrol and evasion values.
For every even level of experience, ie 2, 4, 6, etc., units gain a +1 increase in their offensive fire, defensive fire, assault, and police values.
For every level of experience, units gain a 10 point increase in their cohesion value.

Supply
Without a rail line to transfer supply to your troops, your force is a beached whale.
Try to keep a substantial reserve of railroad points so supply can be moved by the AI.
Supply is generated and pushed at the start of the turn; it can range from 1 to 5 regions.
A depot every 3-5 areas is recommended; remember that the range changes with weather.
1 to 3 level cities do not push supply.
To locate depots, turn on the supply filter; depots locations will pulsate on the map.
Make sure the supply overlay is green between you and a source of supply.
When you build depots, makes sure they fit into an active network. Keep aligned with active conduits.
Depots pull supply; make sure they don’t divert supplies from areas that are in need.
If a region where you are making a stand does not have a depot, consider making one.
Create depots at key areas to attract and push supply.
Depots are expensive; they take 8 elements of supply wagons to build.
Depots are very useful in optimizing your Supply lines. You can build them in critical locations such as Supply bottlenecks or remote areas lacking other structures.
The amount of Supply that can transit through a structure is roughly proportional to its Production Capacity.
Use the supply filter and figure out where bottleneck are.
Depots are very expansive. In Western Europe, cities and existing depots provide a working network, but deep in Russia and Serbia, it will be necessary to build them.
Supply wagons can suck supplies from structures within range; move supply wagons into the range of a stocked supply source and they will replenish.
When launching a major attack remember to mass supply wagons at the point of attack.
It is possible to shuttle supplies and ammo with wagons; have 1/2 in the rear and rotate.
ID key ammo sources; use strategic movement to transfer ammo units to and from.
There will be a shortage of munitions early in the game. Remember to build factories; they do not have to close to the front.
If you are too far from a depot, units will not get resupply and will start consuming embedded supply; after supply wagons have been emptied, normal unit have only 2 turns of supply as reserve.
Supply units provide a +10% battle bonus and absorb hits from bad weather.
A rough rule of thumb is 1 supply wagon for 2 corps.
An uncontested enemy unit will block supply through an area just by being there.
One unit on the rail road, and one on each side will block supplies between almost any two depots completely; remember, just because you hold a rail line region, doesn't mean supplies cannot move around that region.
Watch your foe’s unit supply status bars; this shows if supply is making it to his front lines.
Forts and fleets block supply past their position.
A force with 100 pw will ensure a damaged rail line is rebuilt.
Bedouin camel cavalry have a special trait that reduces supply consumption by 25% for their stack, but this is a PON ability port that does not work TEAW.

Naval
The Entente fleet is twice the size of the Central Powers. When half of their fleet is at port resting, the other half is available to roam the seas and enforce blockades, hunt raiders, and bombard colonies.
The Entente will most likely use older class ships in the Blockades box on passive/defensive, while the powerful Grand Fleet is standing by in Scapa Flow, ready to intercept.
A sortie should be made in Offensive/Intercept mode if you want it to be effective.
Battle fleets should be packed with every dreadnaught, battleship, and heavy cruiser you can manage, heaviest first. Fill out the remaining CP with all the light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats you can fit in. Keep the subs out of mobile fleets and in their own groups. Battle fleets should be used to interdict enemy fleet movement and more importantly in the blockade boxes. Light fleets (no larger ships than light cruisers) should be used for transport escort or in the shipping boxes to protect the merchants.
Torpedo boat fight at range 0 and are of limited use in undersea warfare. Consider keeping them in your main battle fleet as they are cheap and have the screener ability.
There is no need to be in offensive posture, unless you want to start an attack. Being in defensive with intercept mode “on” your fleets in nearby regions should collaborate while losing relatively less cohesion per turn.
A year has 24 turns, but consider winter months have bad weather that makes operations futile, especially for the larger-caliber battleships that take advantage of opening fire at long range. If a player carefully chooses his fights, the big ships technological and numerical advantage can be negated. In theory, in a very foul weather situation, the distance will be so close that even submarines can wreak havoc.
German ships start scattered all over the world; run as fast as you can to a safe harbor.
Send the armed merchants running to Pola in the Med.
Put the best naval officers, and those with key skills, in your killer stack.
The bigger guns in a killer stack, the better.
Unless certain of winning the battle, consider not risking your High Fleet. Simply uniting your fleets and going after the Grand Fleet might work against Athena, but could result in a disaster against a cunning WE player in PBEM; NM and ships lost in a high seas battle can compromise the entire Central Powers game.
The CP can actually score a spectacular victory by combining its fleet divisions into 1 powerful flotilla and risking a major naval battle with the Grand Fleet.
However, if you lose then consider all bets off. Without a High Fleet, the blockade will be devastating, and the rest of the Entente Fleet, if one does not fear the mines, can escort troopships for an amphibious invasion of Germany or Austria-Hungary.
Any ship traversing two regions adjacent to coastal guns will be bombarded. As long as you in one region next to the fort, you're fine, but if you travel via a coast line and go through two regions adjacent to coastal guns, they will fire as you pass by.
Mines cannot be swept; if you lose control of the adjacent coastal area, the fields will eventually vanish.
Minesweepers won't remove the mines, but having them in the fleet will mitigate some of the damage sustained moving through the minefield.
When adding minesweepers to a fleet, be aware they are coastal vessels and have a speed coefficient of 65%.
It is not possible to sink fleets while they're based in a port.
At lower ASW levels, subs are really only intercepted when the U-boot goes looking for trouble; be very careful when using the intercept order.
The CP has no tech for ASW; unless Entente subs are the ones initiating combat, you won't be able to touch them for the entire war.
As combat is abstracted in the Shipping box, posture only affects cohesion loss.

If you place a sub in the blockade boxes as a scout, it will very rarely be engaged.
Each submarine element in a Shipping Box has a 10% chance each turn of sinking one merchant shipping element.
This chance increases to 14% per submarine element upon reaching U-Boat Technology Level 3, and 20% per submarine element upon reaching U-Boat Technology Level 4; submarine effects are non-cumulative.
If there are less than 25 merchant shipping elements in the Mediterranean Shipping Box, Great Britain, France, and Italy must each make a check with a chance of 4% per element less than 25; for each check failed, Rebel Alignment increase by 1% in the nation’s off-map Diplomacy Region.
Entente may cancel out merchant shipping losses by placing screening light warships (destroyers and light cruisers) in the Shipping Boxes. The ASW (Anti-Submarine Warfare) Technology level is the key factor in how effective screeners operate. At ASW Technology Level 2, each screener element has a 10% chance of negating a merchant shipping loss inflicted by submarine, at Level 3, each screener element has a 20% chance of negating a loss, and at Level 4, and each screener element has a 33% chance of negating a loss.
The Atlantic Shipping Box has more impact on Great Britain, but does not affect other nations, while the Mediterranean Shipping Box has less impact on Great Britain, but can also impact France and Italy.
If Britain does not build destroyers and merchant ships from turn 1 on and Germany devotes substantial and sustained effort to the undersea war, it is possible to clear the Atlantic of Allied merchant ships.
Each turn, there is a 4% chance per heavy or light warship element the Entente have in a Blockade Box of increasing the blockade counter; The level progresses forward when a Blockade counter has increased by 20.
Submarines do not count towards the blockade level check; only torpedo boats, destroyers, cruisers and battleships do.
Blockade effects:
- Level 1 Atlantic Blockade: 20% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will decrease by 1% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: No effect as of yet on Austria-Hungary.
- Level 2Atlantic Blockade: 10% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: 10% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Austria-Hungary.
- Level 3 Atlantic Blockade: 25% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: 25% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Austria-Hungary.
- Level 4 Atlantic Blockade: 60% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: 60% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Austria-Hungary.
- Level 5 Atlantic Blockade: 90% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: 90% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 1% in Austria-Hungary.
- Level 6 Atlantic Blockade: 95% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 2% in Germany; Mediterranean Blockade: 95% chance each turn Rebel Alignment will increase by 2% in Austria-Hungary.
By the time the Blockade reaches Level 5 or higher, the ill effects will gradually drive the Central Powers to collapse. Thus, the Blockade is a very effective tool for eventually winning the war, but it should be enacted early on for best long-term effect.
To board ships, the fleet and army must start the turn in the same region.
Don't forget your water transport units, both salt and fresh water, into your plans.
If you don't mind the mines, a fleet of freshwater transports can hug the Baltic coast and carry an amphibious assault force targeting Russia.
MC is gained per day spent in a region after the enemy is driven out. It takes 5 days for a force to land from the adjacent coastal region, so if the invasion force is taking something close to 10 days to reach the adjacent region, then 5 to land, just do the math. Also, if the defenders lost but weren't forced to retreat, they will remain in the coastal region and MC won't start transferring. This is part the reason naval landings are so tricky in AGEOD games.
Units attacking in an amphibious assault, almost always fight to the last man because they normally cannot retreat. But, rarely, there is a very slim chance, a force will retreat to off shore ships.
If you are attacked when moving units on to ships, even if they are stacked with ships in a harbor, the attack can cancel the troops boarding action, but your ships will continue their original orders and merrily sail away empty.
Under strength naval squadrons of the same type and nationality can be merged with the shortcut [Ctrl] + C; for some reason merging cannot be done with the button.

Mediterranean Naval
Scout before attacking.
Be very careful with your fleet in the Mediterranean; losing a major naval battle is the quickest way to lose the war.
Consider using German subs in the Mediterranean shipping box.
Targeting the Mediterranean shipping box with U-boats will not anger the US.
If not going all out in the Atlantic, consider sending German subs in the Mediterranean shipping box.
If the Allies place subs in the Sea of Marmara, 4 elements in an area will stop movement 90% of the time, Turkish troop traveling by rail or foot across the Bosphorus will be blocked. They will have to go the long way around and cross at the Dardanelles.

North and Baltic Naval
Scout before hitting the North Sea blockade box; if you do attack, hit it with everything.
Be very careful with the Fleet in the North Sea; losing a major naval battle is the quickest way to lose the war.
Consider sending all German subs to the Mediterranean; move on green/green.
Submarines in the Atlantic shipping box can trigger the Lusitania event, which shifts the US 10 towards the Allies.
Surface raiders in the Atlantic shipping box can provoke the Lusitania event.
Consider not sending U-boats to the Atlantic Box; you do not want the US to enter the war.
Remember to check the weather, Russia's Baltic fleet will spend much of the winter locked in harbor due to ice.

Diplomacy
Britain will not surrender.
The Central Powers and Western Entente each have 1 Send Diplomat (Major) and 4 send Diplomat (Minor) RGDs.
Unless you want to face the American, don’t send U-boats to the Atlantic Blockade box.
Declaration of War on a neutral shifts the US 10 towards the Allies.
Agricultural aid is provided by Holland 10%, Romania 20%, Belgium 20%, Italy 20% and Denmark if the Blockade is in effect this Food aid can possibly reduce the blockade's effects.
Remember that Concession RDC will shift a nation's alignment 3% in your favor. Concessions can be used once on a given nation every 12 turns. In the end game, if both sides are on a race to the bottom, use of this RDC can make the difference between victory and defeat.

RDC
Decisions are received four times per year.
It takes 2 Zeppelin elements within 6 regions of London to launch bombing raids by RDC. Success will lower British NM by 1.
There is an event that checks how many Zeppelins in good shape are on the Western Front. This implies that the German player should let his Zeppelins rest (to restore cohesion), buy Zeppelins replacements (to repair hits) or even build entirely new Zeppelins. The more he has on map, the more decisions he receives (from 0 to 3 for Bombs, from 0 to 5 for Recon, four times a year).
Stormtroops, once spent, a decision is gone forever, but new decisions are given back several time per years, depending of the number of deployed stormtroopers. These units must be in good shape (at least 50% cohesion and health) to be considered for the computation. If you just keep the units in the force pool, no new decisions can be added by the game.
Stormtroops RDC will be minor, sustained, or heavy. There must be at least 2 stormtrooper units adjacent to the region where the RDC is played.
Chemical War is played as an event card. Check the requirements on the tool tip. You will need an adjacent heavy artillery.

Technology
Beginning in 1915, money and EP can be directed to technology categories.
If you spend money on research, make sure to set enough money aside to pay after the turn ends.
Tech upgrades upgrade existing as well as new units.
If money and EPs are applied to progress, it will take 6-12 turns before funding in the same category can be applied again.
Infantry Research, at level 4, assault troops/stormtroopers become available.
Sub research, at Level 2 you get an increased build pool; at level 3 subs upgrade to next level.
ASW research, cannot be funded until 6/1/1915.
Chemical Research, each gas has a slight bonus the first 3 times; afterwards, effects are somewhat muted.

Builds
Cheaper units are shown in the build queue first.
The following only impacts infantry, cavalry, and militia unit costs.
- If a Force Pool has 20% or less of its units on the map, it costs 50% of its normal cost.
- If 21-40% of FP units on the map, it costs 75% of its normal cost.
- If 41-60% of FP units on the map, the cost is unaffected.
- If 61-80% of FP units on the map, the cost is 125% of normal cost.
- If 81% or higher of FP units on the map, the cost is 150% of normal cost.
Ships, planes or artillery take quite a while to build.
When deciding what to build bear in mind that in the short term arty is more expensive but is cheaper in the long run than infantry since you don't have to buy arty replacements that often.
During periods of heavy fighting, it is normal to spend everything on replacements for several turns.
NM influences the build duration of new units.
Print Money grants you 1000 State Funds, but at a cost of Morale, VP, Engagement Pts, and 2% inflation.
The AI receives increases to money, conscripts, and war supplies at each higher difficulty setting.
After 1915 manpower is used up consider freezing infantry production and saving your manpower for replacements.
The WE gets Italian and USA manpower in 1915 and 1917/1918, but you have to make do with the forces on hand.
Bulgaria and Romania provided very limited additional manpower when joining. Turkey will kick in 130 new bodies.

German Western Front
Concentrate forces at key locations.
Even if you don’t invade, keep an eye on Belgium; the Allies may come pouring through.
Key an eye on the North Sea coast and dig trenches in key areas with militia; England can launch a naval invasion.
Interlock armies and corps.
Send engineers and pioneers to assist forces digging in.
Scout only by air.
After the lines stabilize, send almost all cavalry to the East.
Transfer balloon units to the front lines.
Build and positions fighters to limit French scouting.
If your drive is stopped, limit attacks and counterattacks to areas where they have not dug in.
Keep rotating damaged units; pull battered troops back to cities with depots for rebuilding.
Keep an eye on supply levels; shuttle supplies and ammo wagons if necessary.
ID key ammo sources.
If attacking use massed heavy artillery at the key point.
Concentrate medium artillery on the Western front.
Use militia to dig and hold fall back lines.
Limit militia use, they can’t stand up to regulars in combat.
Transfer militia to the east to hold VP points and flanks.
*It's easier to defend than attack and it's easier to defend a narrow front than a broad one - especially if that front is already fortified. So choose the Moltke plan, stay out of Belgium, form an army group on the West Front though it means wearing the VP loss associated with overlooking Hindenburg; pack your weak spot in Mulhausen, keep away from costly research and options expenditure (except for new generals) until at least Spring of 1915, and instead build all the infantry and artillery you can close to the frontier so you can quickly package them up into reinforcing corps.

German Eastern Front
Concentrate forces at key locations on rail lines.
Clear and control rail lines.
Try encircling before attacking.
Try cutting enemy rail lines feeding into your point of attack.
Send most militia to the East to hold secondary positions and secure captured VP locations.
Create depots at key areas lacking them.
Constantly shuttle supplies and ammo.
*Clauswitz was right. Prioritize the destruction of Russian units above the retention or conquest of territorial objectives. The Moltke Plan gives you the force ratio you need to take a massive bite out of the starting Russian OoB committed to Prussia, and you can then parlay that into the destruction of the major Russian forces operating in Poland and pushing into Hungary. Once you've managed that the Russians will find it very difficult to put a cohesive force together to oppose your movements, and you can make it even less cohesive by committing small forces to an expanding torrent advance (Austrian units can handle this quite effectively) while you muster a German drive on St Petersburg.
Consider threatening a naval invasion from the Baltic Sea.

Austrian Eastern Front
Promote your better commanders; send the junk 3 stars to where they can do no harm.
Concentrate forces at key locations on rail lines.
Clear and control rail lines.
Try encircling before attacking.
Build up for a spring offensive.
Create depots at key areas lacking them.
Constantly shuttle supplies and ammo.
Go on the offensive after Germany has drawn off Russian power.

Balkans Front
Use minimum force to hold back the Serbs; they are on a short leash and will soon be in a terrible strategic position.
Use militia to hold VP points and secondary positions.
Go on the offensive after Bulgaria comes in.
*Conrad was wrong. You don't need to take out Serbia to win the war. It's certainly satisfying to meet that challenge given the geographical and topographical obstacles facing you - and it can be done - but it doesn't have to be done right off the bat. You can cripple the Serbian army with a couple of well managed early attacks (again focusing on unit destruction rather than territorial gain) and then morph to a slower, grinding advance or even holding operations if necessary. Once Russia's on its knees you can finish the job with a massive strike while you're shifting the bulk of your forces to the Italian front for Act Two.

Italian Front
Before war breaks out, dig trenches in the Alps with militia or fixed fortress troops.
When in rough terrain and attacked across a river, it’s possible to hold at 1-2 odds, or even 1-3.
Shift the large number of Austrian mountain troops to this front; try to have one unit in each stack.

Mid East
The Sinal Railway will be started automatically from January 1916 if Britain is at war with the Turks and controls all the Sinaï coastal regions from the Suez canal to El Arish. The costs is 500$; it takes 24 turns to build.
In PBEM games consider having the Ottomans stand in Gaza with 6 level entrenchments. When Mustafa Kemal Pasha come from eastern front he can command 2 other armies under Cemal Pasha and Cevat Pasha. Lawrence and his Arab forces could be better stopped if Fahreddin Pasha leaves Medina and deploys in Jerusalem with a combined militia and line infantry gathered from northern regions. MTSG will be the main problem for different hierarchy.
* Protect the Dardanelles forts by digging in troops on both sides of the strait.
Keep a strong force at Gallipoli.
Threaten amphibious landings in the Black sea but be very careful. Russia can swiftly launch massive counter attacks along rail lines.
Have a force ready to go a wandering in the Balkans. Stay on the rail lines. Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania are all possible targets.
Strip Mesopotamia of anything more than a small holding force. Invading British troops will be on a short supply leash and will not go past Bagdad.
Amass a strong force to threaten Egypt. Unless the Allies ignore you, it’s unlikely you will take the Suez. But, if you dig in next to a supply source, it creates a threat that will tie down a large numbers of Brits.
Last edited by Straight Arrow on Sat Jun 19, 2021 5:09 pm, edited 143 times in total.

epaminondas
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sat Aug 26, 2017 8:43 am

Wow! That is a frighteningly useful contribution, Arrow. I'm still digesting the greater part of it but I'd offer three, mainly grand-strategic, points that I've found important to note as the CP.

First, Moltke was right. As your analysis notes, it's easier to defend than attack and it's easier to defend a narrow front than a broad one - especially if that front is already fortified. So choose the Moltke plan, stay out of Belgium, form an army group on the West Front though it means wearing the VP loss associated with overlooking Hindenburg, pack your weak spot in Mulhausen, keep away from costly research and options expenditure (except for new generals) until at least Spring of 1915, and instead build all the infantry and artillery you can close to the frontier so you can quickly package them up into reinforcing corps.

Second, Clauswitz was right. Prioritise the destruction of Russian units above the retention or conquest of territorial objectives. The Moltke Plan gives you the force ratio you need to take a massive bite out of the starting Russian OoB committed to Prussia, and you can then parlay that into the destruction of the major Russian forces operating in Poland and pushing into Hungary. Once you've managed that the Russians will find it very difficult to put a cohesive force together to oppose your movements, and you can make it even less cohesive by committing small forces to an expanding torrent advance (Austrian units can handle this quite effectively) while you muster a German drive on St Petersburg.

Third, Conrad was wrong. You don't need to take out Serbia to win the war. It's certainly satisfying to meet that challenge given the geographical and topographical obstacles facing you - and it can be done - but it doesn't have to be done right off the bat. You can cripple the Serbian army with a couple of well managed early attacks (again focusing on unit destruction rather than territorial gain) and then morph to a slower, grinding advance or even holding operations if necessary. Once Russia's on its knees you can finish the job with a massive strike while you're shifting the bulk of your forces to the Italian front for Act Two.

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Straight Arrow
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun Aug 27, 2017 1:48 am

Epaminondas, most excellent input.

Please keep the ideas and corrections flowing, I 'll work them into the thread.

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Comtedemeighan
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Wed Dec 27, 2017 10:18 pm

Thanks for putting this great list of tips together. Recently just got the game. I played AGEOD stuff years ago and have forgotten a lot of the mechanics but it's slowly coming back to me :papy:

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Thu Dec 28, 2017 12:08 pm

That's a lot of good tips! But I was wondering if this "Never have armies in adjacent areas; they will not MTSG and support each other" is really true? I'm pretty sure that my neighboring army stacks have been helping each other in attack and in defence.

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:19 pm

What he's referring to is the 3-star GHQ stack does not MTSG to support other stacks (his post is carry-over terminology from CW2 where the 3-star GHQ stack is the Army HQ - in EAW the GHQ is the actual front GHQ, such as Moltke, Joffre, etc). I'm not 100% sure on the mechanics here myself, as I've sometimes seen GHQ's assist, but not sure whether it was due to MTSG or not. In EAW, this is less of a concern, as there are few GHQ's across the fronts.

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Thu Dec 28, 2017 4:53 pm

At some point my OHL was garrisoning Brussels with lots of reserve infantry, and von Falkenhayn was helping neighboring provinces under attack with his troops.

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Straight Arrow
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Wed Mar 07, 2018 5:16 am

Nikel, your suggestion to add useful links to the list is an excellent idea; I'll get on it.

Any other points you would like to add?

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Nikel
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Wed Mar 07, 2018 6:39 pm

In fact my suggestion was that you posted this very list of suggestions for the CPS.

Someway I had missed this whole thread! :bonk:

I miss the third companion, where are the points to know for the Ottomans?


Thanks Sir. :hat:

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:07 pm

pantsukki wrote:That's a lot of good tips! But I was wondering if this "Never have armies in adjacent areas; they will not MTSG and support each other" is really true? I'm pretty sure that my neighboring army stacks have been helping each other in attack and in defence.


Pantsukki, I have been keying an eye on game play and it looks like I was wrong; except for a 2nd 3-star GHQ, it appears neighboring army stacks will help each other in attack and in defence.

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Nikel
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sat Mar 10, 2018 6:24 pm

Here is a .pdf version of Straight Arrow list, uploaded in this thread (cannot do it here by forum limitations).

viewtopic.php?f=365&t=52380

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun May 13, 2018 10:12 pm

Straight Arrow wrote:Points to Know - Central Powers

Leaders
Each leader provides CP to his Stack: 1 star 24; • 2 star: 36; • 3 or 4 star: 48.
If not attached to a GHQ, a leaders command points are halved.
If a stack commanding officer fails his activation test, units reduce movement by 50%.
Enabling corps command increases the combat power and general’s attributes are passed on.
The only GHQ you can appoint is Germany's second GHQ; any 3 star not currently combined with a unit can be used; if you pick a general with low seniority, you may end paying a NM penalty.
The Command Radius of an Army is displayed by selecting the Army Command stack and pressing and holding the <Shift> key.
Leaderless troops are always activated, but suffer from movement and combat penalties.
Inactive leaders lose the ability to perform some special orders.
Use your best leaders on the offensive. You can always dig-in your mediocre commanders in a defensive position, where their being inactivated doesn't matter. But you need leaders who are active most of the time to move aggressively, or to react to an unsuspected move by the enemy.
If your promotable officer is not the leader of his stack, extract him from the stack or the promote order will not work.
The ability to increase a general's skills does exist. If they fight and win long enough, Defensive and Offensive will increase with experience.
Only the commanding general traits are considered, not the subordinates (unless specified as being usable as a subordinate.)
Skill attributes in the same field are never cumulative.
The same trait, from the same type of unit, does not stack; if it has a different trait name, then typically they do stack.
There are no officers with the training trait.
Use the almost useless 2-1-1 generals in forts or to form 3rd class corps.
Consider using leaders, like Falkenhayn, with the multinational trait to make your allied forces more effective.



1. It seems all 1, 2 or 3 star leaders provides 24 CP.
2. The only 12 CP leader is that lonely man in Ost-Afrika.
3. It's a pity you can't create second AUS or TUR GHQs or just Bulgarian or Rumanian. AUS are mostly problematic if Italy is in Entante. How one can enable more GHQ? What files should be changed?
4. Command Radius of an GHQ is a joke. Even with Hindenburg (strategic 7) Ost GHQ covers only half east front.
5. In my game Erich von Falkenhayn has not multinational trait.
6. I'd like to read what to do with Turkey. They have most useless leaders (not activated most of the time).
Meteoryt-like user. Strikes and disappears.

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Straight Arrow
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sat Jun 02, 2018 7:06 pm

Khanti, thanks, your corrections have been added.

I agree, ideas on using the Turks would be helpful.

Here's a few to start the ball rolling. Hopefully, the forum can add some more:
Protect the Dardanelles forts by digging in troops on both sides of the strait.
Keep a strong force at Gallipoli.
Threaten amphibious landings in the Black sea but be very careful. Russia can swiftly launch massive counter attacks along rail lines.
Have a force ready to go a wandering in the Balkans. Stay on the rail lines. Greece, Bulgaria and Rumania are all possible targets.
Stay inactive on the Caucasus front. Why poke a sleeping bear? Large Russian forces locked here will be released by your attack, also terrain, weather, and supply can be major issues.
Strip Mesopotamia of anything more than a small holding force. Invading British troops will be on a short supply leash and will not go past Bagdad.
Amass a strong force to threaten Egypt. Unless the Allies ignore you, it’s unlikely you will take the Suez. But, if you dig in next to a supply source, it creates a threat that will tie down a large numbers of Brits.

pantsukki
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Mon Jul 02, 2018 11:08 am

Straight Arrow wrote:Stay inactive on the Caucasus front. Why poke a sleeping bear? Large Russian forces locked here will be released by your attack, also terrain, weather, and supply can be major issues.


Aren't the Russian Caucasus forces simply locked until the Ottomans join the war, and then released immediately or soon after their entry? That is, Ottoman activity on the front wouldn't have any meaning?

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Tue Jul 03, 2018 5:46 am

pantsukki wrote:
Straight Arrow wrote:Stay inactive on the Caucasus front. Why poke a sleeping bear? Large Russian forces locked here will be released by your attack, also terrain, weather, and supply can be major issues.


Aren't the Russian Caucasus forces simply locked until the Ottomans join the war, and then released immediately or soon after their entry? That is, Ottoman activity on the front wouldn't have any meaning?



Pantsukki, you are correct, as I just found out in a pbem game. I'm not sure how I made that mistake. Thank you for pointing it out; please keep editing!

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun Jul 15, 2018 5:11 pm

One small addition which might be news to someone: it's possbile to attach more than 8 armies to a GHQ, even though the face card won't display more than 8. I'm not sure if there's a limit at all.

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Wed Feb 27, 2019 6:34 am

Just added some new material.

Is there anything else you'd like to see thrown into the pot?

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun Dec 15, 2019 4:54 pm

I'm new to the Forum and new to EAW. Started on BOA, then AACW, then WOS, WON, and now learning EAW. Someone said it is massive. I think's it's a bit beyond that, myself. But, to the point -- great thread. Very, very helpful.
Thanks for posting.

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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:10 pm

Hey Gents,

After having the pleasure of playing both TE and CP in challenging pbem games, I'm looking to refresh and update "Points to Know."

The new-old comments been shifted to black text; new input from this point will show up in orange.

Which brings us to this posting; please highlight any mistakes I made or any points you would wish to see added.

So let it be written, so let it be done.
Last edited by Straight Arrow on Mon Apr 13, 2020 8:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

epaminondas
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Mon Apr 13, 2020 10:47 am

It's a fabulous resource, Arrow. You almost literally have "written the book" on how to master this game. Heaps in here that I've skimmed across in the manual without ever appreciating its gameplay value - and heaps more outside the manual that had never occurred to me.

There has to be a medal somewhere for this kind of dedication.

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Nikel
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Re: Points to Know - Central Powers

Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:18 pm

I have updated Straight Arrow list in pdf format in the link below.

I took the liberty of adding a pair of you tube links by XTRG, complete and played as the CPs.


viewtopic.php?f=365&t=52380&p=397769#p397769

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